These Networks (and Netflix) Dominated the 2016 Emmy Nominations

The Television Academy announced its 2016 Emmy nominees on Thursday and, just like last year, HBO spent the day counting up its nominations, resulting in celebratory gifs and tweets.

HBO, which is owned by Time Warnertwx led all networks and platforms with a whopping 94 total nominations this year, including a leading 23 noms for the massively popular fantasy series Game of Thrones. HBO’s Veep earned the most nominations for a comedy series, with 17. While it was certainly a banner day for the premium cable network, HBO’s tally actually dropped off from 2015, when the network garnered 126 nominations.

Of course, it’s hard for HBO to complain about the 25% decrease, especially since the next most-nominated network was Fox’s FX, which scored 56 nominations, led by 22 nods for the acclaimed miniseries The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story as well as 18 nominations for the second season of Fargo. What’s more, three of the four major broadcast networks—ABC, CBS, and FOX—all saw their nomination totals fall, while NBC’s tally remained flat year-over-year.

But, while the domination of cable networks like HBO and FX (AMC also pulled in a solid 24 nominations) was on full display during Thursday morning’s announcements, the growing threat posed by streaming media continues to cast a shadow over cable’s celebration of its clout versus more traditional broadcasters.

Once again, Netflix saw its Emmy nominations climb, as the streaming service’s tally increased from 34 in 2015 to 54 this year. The service is only three years removed from being elated with the 14 nominations it landed in 2013, but Netflix has spent a lot of money on the quantity and quality of its original content in recent years—bulking up to the tune of 600 hours of original content churned out this year at a price of roughly $5 billion.

Amazon is also spending a lot (though the company won’t say how much) to grow its library of original content and the e-commerce giant’s Instant Video service again saw its Emmy nominations increase this year, to 16 from 12 last year. Of course, even though Amazon’s nomination total falls short of its streaming rival, Amazon still managed to post more Emmy wins than Netflix in 2015 (five for Amazon to Netflix’s four), thanks to big wins for the company’s comedy series Transparent.

Hulu—the streaming service run by ABC, NBC, and FOX as a joint venture—joined the streaming part at the Emmy nominations with two nods this year, while Google’s YouTube and Sony’s Crackle streaming service racked up three nominations apiece.

Meanwhile, HBO is doing its best to compete with the onslaught of streaming content flooding the market. The network recently said it is increasing its annual output of original content by roughly half to match the 600 hours of programming Netflix plans to release this year—this, despite the fact that HBO’s content budget is reportedly under $2 billion, or less than half that of Netflix.

ABC Is Introducing Dozens of New Shows You Can Only Watch Online

ABC is bulking up its digital content with a new slate of original TV series that will only be available to watch online.

The Walt Disney-owned network is launching “a major evolution of its streaming service,” including seven original digital short-form TV series, with over 40 more series currently in development, ABC said in a press release on Wednesday. The network’s streaming app will also include full seasons of 38 past ABC series, which the network described as “throwback” shows, such as Felicity, My So-Called Life, School House Rock, Sports Night, and Ugly Betty.

The digital content will be available through ABC’s apps for mobile devices and connected TV devices, while viewers using Apple iOS mobile devices and Apple TV will have exclusive access to a new, redesigned interface. The content will be free, and viewers don’t even need to sign in with a pay TV subscription. “All of this allows us to expand beyond the bounds of our linear schedule and extend ABC storytelling to viewers across screens and platforms,” ABC’s Senior Vice President of Digital Media, Karin Gilford, said in a statement.

The seven short series initially being offered by ABC include Boondoggle, a comedy starring Modern Family actor Ty Burrell with episodes running mostly between five and seven minutes. Other new digital shows include a comedy called Forever 31, starring comedian Iliza Shlesinger, cooking show Get Cookin’, and a series dedicated to personal finance called I Can Find $3,000 In Your Home.

Recode points out that ABC’s new digital strategy seems somewhat reminiscent of the networks’ previous attempts at generating online traffic with “webisodes,” which often featured extra content that spilled over from existing prime-time series. But, ABC is pushing the fact that its new digital series are standalone content developed in-house by the network’s comedy, daytime, and digital programming teams. “We hope this will be an opportunity for our existing talent to flex their creative muscles, and also an opportunity for audiences to discover and champion new emerging content creators,” Samie Falvey, ABC’s Executive Vice President of Comedy and International Scripted Development, said in a statement.

In the evening of June 15, as Democrats neared the tenth hour of a filibuster to demand more effective gun control laws, the Boston Globe was printing its Thursday edition with a three word front-page editorial: Make It Stop. As the presses ran, the paper began its Twitter campaign of hammering the point home repeatedly with a #MakeItStop hashtag.

Since the mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando, in which 49 people died, the entire media ecosystem — from late-night comedians to TV anchors to newspapers– have been focused on America’s gun violence epidemic. The Globe took an unusual approach–it published a front-page editorial and multimedia calling on Congress to pass a new assault weapons ban, “written for the realities we face in 2016.” And it turned its Twitter feed into a sort of running op-ed, focused on gun violence in America.

Links in the tweets brought viewers to a multimedia webpage that displayed the number of mass shootings and people killed since the assault weapons ban expired in 2004 and an animation of how many shots someone could have fired from an automatic rifle in the time a user spent on the Globe’s page.

Gawker’s Latest Legal Battle Could be Over Donald Trump’s Hair

A week after the fallout from a high-profile lawsuitforced Gawker to declare bankruptcy and put itself up for sale, the snarky news site could be staring at another legal battle.

On Tuesday, Gawker wrote that its parent company recently received a letter from a lawyer threatening a lawsuit over an article the site ran last month featuring what it described as “a lengthy investigation that sought to solve the enduring mystery of Donald Trump’s infamous mane.” In other words, Gawker could get sued over Donald Trump’s hair.

The letter came from a lawyer claiming to represent New York-based hair-replacement company Ivari International, which was the subject of the Gawker story featuring allegations from unnamed sources claiming that the presumptive GOP presidential nominee paid Ivari $60,000—along with regular fees for upkeep—to maintain his oft-maligned hairdo.

The letter in question was sent by attorney Charles J. Harder, according to Gawker. He’s the lawyer who helped Hulk Hogan successfully sue Gawker for invasion of privacy to the tune of $140 million—a judgement that pushed Gawker Media into bankruptcy, setting up a possible sale to digital media company Ziff Davis.

Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel claimed victory over Gawker after Hogan won that suit, revealing that he had bankrolled the complaint and was paying Harder to pursue various other legal action against Gawker in retaliation for the website outing Thiel as gay in 2007. While Thiel has not specifically identified any other specific lawsuits against Gawker that he has funded, the media company says it is facing multiple other legal actions brought by Harder.

Harder’s letter calls Gawker’s story on Ivari and Trump’s hair “false and defamatory” while accusing the website of libel, invasion of privacy, and tortious interference. Harder and Ivari are threatening a lawsuit while demanding that Gawker remove the offending article from its website and post an apology.

In its article on Tuesday, which includes a full version of Harder’s letter, Gawker writer J.K. Trotter called the claims made by Harder and Ivari owner Edward Ivari “on their face, ridiculous,” before adding that the mission of Harder and Thiel is to “intimidate Gawker and its reporters from publishing true things about public figures.”

Trotter also notes that several of the allegedly “defamatory” statements in the article were actually pulled from information in Ivari’s own marketing materials and from public records such as court documents. One statement Harder and Ivari point to from the Gawker article is a line citing a previous lawsuit against Ivari that included a claim that Edward Ivari “often depicts himself as a doctor” despite his lack of a medical degree.

A letter written by Gawker Media general counsel Heather Dietrick in response to the letter from Harder is also available online. In that letter, Dietrick assures Harder “we take your letter seriously,” but she also asserts that Gawker found “nothing false” in its review of the article on Trump’s hair and that Harder’s initial letter provided no proof to the contrary.

Fortune reached out to Ivari International and Charles Harder for comment and will update this article with any response.

As Gawker’s Trotter points out in his own article this week, Hogan’s lawsuit and the media company’s resulting bankruptcy mean that there would likely be little financial compensation available for any plaintiffs suing Gawker Media. But if it is Thiel who is behind this latest legal move from Harder, then money would seem to be less of a motivator than destroying Gawker.

Buzzfeed’s CEO Cancelled $1 Million GOP Ad Deal Because of Trump

BuzzFeed announced Monday morning that it has terminated an advertising deal with the Republican National Committee over what the digital media startup described as, essentially, a fundamental disagreement with the political platforms and rhetoric of the GOP’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.

In a letter to employees that BuzzFeed posted online, website founder and CEO Jonah Peretti described the move to pull out of the RNC’s ad-buy, which Politico has reported was worth $1.3 million, as “a business decision” spurred by the opinion that Trump’s campaign “is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world.”

According to BuzzFeed, which published Peretti’s email to employees in full, the website signed its ad deal with the RNC in April, with Peretti noting that BuzzFeed typically takes ad money from candidates on both sides of the aisle. Since April, though, Donald Trump has more or less wrapped up the Republican nomination for president. Peretti wrote that BuzzFeed informed the RNC on Monday morning that the site is not willing to post ads supporting Trump’s presidential bid, so the website terminated its agreement with the organization.

The email from Peretti explained:

“The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs…..We certainly don’t like to turn away revenue that funds all the important work we do across the company. However, in some cases we must make business exceptions: we don’t run cigarette ads because they are hazardous to our health, and we won’t accept Trump ads for the exact same reason.”

BuzzFeed’s news staff has regularly butted heads with Trump and his campaign, with the site’s reporters having reportedly been denied press credentials at Trump campaign events. And, Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski at one point took issue with a BuzzFeed reportalleging that he made unwanted sexual advances toward female journalists.

Peretti reiterated that the move was not an editorial decision, noting the “wall between our business and editorial operations.” He stressed that the decision “will have no influence on our continuing coverage of the campaign.” Still, it’s hard to see this public announcement as anything but a slap at Trump.

Generally, the business side of news organizations try to stay far away from such disputes. Peretti’s letter is yet another sign of just how extraordinary this political season is—as well as the strained relationship between Trump and the media.

The RNC responded to BuzzFeed’s public announcement with a shrug, telling the press on Monday that the group reserved ad space with several online platforms, but “never intended to use BuzzFeed.” In a statementto multiple publications, RNC communications director Sean Spicer also said it is “ironic that they have not ruled out taking money from a candidate currently under investigation by the FBI,” in a reference to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. When reached for comment by Fortune, a spokeswoman for Donald Trump’s campaign said the candidate had no comment and pointed to the RNC’s statement.

It is worth noting that BuzzFeed’s advertising model involves the website charging ad clients for advertising content that BuzzFeed staff creates itself, rather than accepting pre-made content and simply posting it on the website. In other words, by terminating the RNC deal, BuzzFeed is effectively saving its own employees from having to create content, called native ads, that promotes a candidate whose views the company says it opposes.

BuzzFeed is certainly not the first publication to publicly take a stance in opposition to Trump’s campaign, as The Huffington Post initially stated it would only cover Trump’s campaign under its entertainment section and later attached an editor’s note to Trump stories calling the candidate “a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther.” Peretti is a co-founder of The Huffington Post.

Here’s an Amazon Dash Button That Ad Agencies Might Love

Hayes, who is founder of creative firm Floyd Hayes Consulting, plans to offer a version of the button specifically for advertising or marketing agencies that often rely on freelance creative people. The idea is they’ll have the button on their desks, ready to order up creative people just like that. Perhaps more accurately, they can order up Floyd Hayes, creative director, just like that.

Amazon amzn initially launched Dash buttons last year. They were pre-programmed, Wi-Fi-connected devices you could install around your house to order new supplies. Put one next to your paper towel stockpile and when it runs low, push the button to order a new shipment from Amazon’s store in the sky.

But a few weeks ago, Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing unit, announced a programmable, Internet of things version of the button that could be programmed to do many things. It could become your Netflix nflx remote control, manage your Philips phg Hue lighting, or check-in your Airbnb guests, according to AWS. Basically, a developer programs the module to perform a certain task so that when the button is pushed, that task is set in motion.

With that in mind, the button, which sells for about $20, can be coded to initiate a text message to Hayes, founder of what he bills as the “World’s Fastest Agency,” which promises to deliver creative concepts within 24 hours. Hayes recapped to Fortune that he hatched the idea this past weekend, talked to a few technical people to see if it was feasible. When he was told it was, Hayes decided to forge ahead.

“The idea is to put the button into big agencies which are always in a rush. They always call and need you to come in right away,” Hayes explained. The button could expedite that process.

For more on Amazon, watch:

The only hitch is that Hayes himself is on a waiting list for the AWS buttons, which sold out soon after they were announced. But he expects he’ll have them in time to get them to clients by August.

Disney Now Has an Official ‘Star Wars’ YouTube Show

In case anyone was worried about there not being enough Star Wars on the Internet, Disney has you covered.

Walt Disney DIS and Lucasfilm on Wednesday revealed The Star Wars Show—a new “digital variety series” that will stream a new episode every week on YouTube and will feature exclusive news and footage related to the massively popular franchise’s movies, television shows, video games, merchandise, and other related products. The show will also bring in celebrity guests to talk about their projects and their own Star Wars fandom.

The first episode of The Star Wars Show, which is hosted by actor Peter Townley and Lucasfilm digital communications manager Andi Gutierrez, debuted online on Wednesday and it featured Duncan Jones—director of Universal Pictures’ upcoming Warcraft movie, and also the son of the late David Bowie—as its first guest.

Kicking off the show’s first episode, which clocks in at just under nine minutes, Townley alluded to the Star Wars franchise’s own complicated episodic history when he joked that “everyone’s gonna love [the show] by the fourth episode, hopefully.”

It makes sense that Disney would look for any number of new ways to cash in on the popularity of the Star Wars franchise in the wake of the record-breaking December debut of the latest film in the series, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is the all-time highest-grossing domestic film at $936 million. All told, the film grossed more than $2.1 billion worldwide at the box office, while analysts estimate that Disney also pulled in more than $3 billion last year in related merchandise sales.

Disney said The Star Wars Show will debut a new episode online every Wednesday.

YouTube Is No Longer an Underdog in the Ad World

In its 11th year, YouTube GOOG is finally done convincing the world that it is a worthy place for advertisers. Gone are the defensive, backhanded references to competitors. No more explicit, desperate-sounding requests for ad dollars. YouTube is done trotting out a pack of teens to scream every time a YouTube star takes to the stage, just to prove the point that yes, YouTube’s homegrown stars are legit stars.

Instead, YouTube did what the TV networks do for their Upfronts presentation: It put on highly produced, relatively generic commercial for itself in a massive warehouse with plenty of booze, food, star power, and spending power. A red carpet. A cameo from Big Bird. An overly sincere montage of teenagers coming out of the closet on YouTube. A dinner catered by famous YouTube chefs, complete with book signings. A recorded video of James Cordon, host of The Late Late Show, crooning, “YouTube, you’re the reason to liiiiiiiiive! Click click click!” A performance by Sia.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki touted the company’s massive audience, saying it reaches more 18- to 49-year-olds on mobile alone than the top ten TV shows combined. TV execs would quibble with the details of that comparison, noting the importance of how long those viewers are watching and what they’re watching.

No matter—YouTube didn’t have to scare or warn advertisers about what they’re missing when they don’t advertise on YouTube, something the company dispatched video star John Green to do last year. By now, everyone in advertising knows how important mobile video is, and they’re spending heavily.

This week advertising holding company Interpublic IPGannounced it would move $250 million of its ad budget earmarked for TV to YouTube’s Google Preferred ad program. Jack Hollis, Toyota’s group vice president of marketing (though he’d prefer the title of “team captain,” he said), delivered an endorsement littered with buzzwords like “moonshot” and “fail fast.” Toyota has increased its investment in Google Preferred by 400% in the last year, he said.

“Gone are the days of testing this platform. That is soooo 2013,” YouTube star and host Lilly Singh declared.

There was no mention of YouTube Red, the subscription service YouTube launched last year. YouTube has commissioned original content from many of its top stars for YouTube Red, but brands can’t advertise against it.

The only real news announcement was the fact that YouTube’s Google Preferred advertising program, which separates the highest quality videos from the user-generated schlock, will now include trending videos that go viral. Before, premium advertisers could not advertise against a viral video that came out of nowhere, because those unknown creators would not have been a part of the Google Preferred program.

Now, Google can identify when a video—“brand safe,” of course—starts to trend, like “Watch me (Whip/Nae Nae)” a rap video that’s been viewed 831 million views since it was published last summer. Silento, the artist behind the song, closed out YouTube’s Newfront event with a dance performance. At the end, two massive confetti guns sprayed gold flecks over the crowd.

Here’s Proof Media Startups Can Succeed Without Venture Capital

Bisnow, a trade publication and events company based in New York City, has been acquired by Wicks Group, a private equity firm. The deal value was not disclosed, but Fortune has learned the price was $50 million.

Started in 2005 by Mark Bisnow and his son Elliott, Bisnow produces newsletters, a website, and local events all focused on the commercial real estate market. The company, which never raised outside capital, makes most of its revenue on sponsorships and tickets to the 300 events it organizes annually.

Bisnow has not disclosed its revenue, but in 2013, it had $13.8 million in sales with a three-year growth rate of 258%, according to Crain’s New York. Mark Bisnow stepped back from his CEO role 2013; Will Friend is now CEO. The company operates in 27 cities in the U.S. and Canada and has 75 employees.

It’s common for trade publications to organize conferences to supplement their income. In technology, digital outlets like TechCrunch, Business Insider, and Recode host conferences, for example, as does Fortune. Ryan Begelman, vice chairman for the company, says Bisnow has grown its events businesses faster than some of the aforementioned publications because it separated its editorial operations from its conference arm.

Many media companies have their journalists wrangle speakers, decide the agenda, and interview speakers on stage. But Begelman says Bisnow found its journalists were too busy to focus on conferences, and they have complex relationships with their sources, making speaking requests awkward. “Decoupling” that role and adding more full-time event producers let Bisnow produce hundreds of events annually.

Furthermore, Bisnow has amassed 500,000 email newsletter subscribers by going hyper-local, a strategy that failed for general news outlets like AOL’s Patch. Begelman says the events made a difference there. “We focus on people — connecting and building a sense of community and networking,” Begelman says. Bisnow is also not afraid to go narrow, even throwing events focused in specific neighborhoods, like New York’s Upper East Side. “Most commercial real estate publications will produce events focused on a whole country or maybe one city,” he says. “A lot of them come from the print world and didn’t understand that, through digital, you could become really hyper-local.” Further, the frequency is important—swooping in with one event per year doesn’t pay off. Bisnow hosts 25 events per year in D.C., for example.

The company also tries to avoid the tediousness of many traditional trade publications—Bisnow’s tagline is “(Almost) Never Boring.” “At the events, we have techno music playing, even though the audience is largely greying real estate executives,” Begelman says.

Bisnow’s decision against getting outside investors is unusual, even as venture money flowed freely at attractive valuations for digital media startups, over the past five years. Now, many of those venture capital-backed media startups are struggling to eek out profitable business models. “I’m just surprised how many people are willing to make that bet – go for the most eyeballs, not knowing if its going to lead to a profitable business model for years,” Begelman says. “That seemed crazy to us.” Not raising venture capital “allowed us to grow very carefully and precisely, and not have to make bad decisions and over-expand too quickly,” he said.

Wicks Group will expand the company, which operates in the U.S. and Canada, to new international geographies, according to CEO Will Friend. Begelman, who co-founded Summit Series, a “transformational festival” company for creative types alongside Elliott Bisnow, will leave the company as part of the transaction.

BuzzFeed’s Big Pitch: We Don’t Know What Works (But Neither Do You)

Earlier this week, inside a giant, dusty warehouse near Penn Station, executives from digital media startup BuzzFeed wooed and wowed an audience full of advertisers and press. The pitch event, part of a series of ad sales events in New York called the Digital NewFronts, was meant to show the media world that BuzzFeed’s video operation, known for goofy stunts like men wearing high heels for a day, has grown up and into a full-blown media empire.

A stunt from BuzzFeed president Greg Coleman showed off BuzzFeed’s massive scale: At 9 a.m., BuzzFeed’s cooking channel, Tasty, published a video for making marshmallow graham cracker chocolate balls to Facebook. As the ad event wrapped up at 1 p.m., Coleman proudly announced that over the previous four hours, the video had racked up more than eight million views and 70,000 shares. Event workers came around to serve everyone the marshmallow balls, the audience murmured approvingly, stuffing them into their mouths.

“If you haven’t figured it out, we’re open for business,” Coleman said as everyone packed up to leave.

Previously, BuzzFeed rejected the cheesy hard pitch formula of NewFronts, instead using its event to indoctrinate advertisers about How BuzzFeed Thinks About the World. Consciously or not, it sent a message that BuzzFeed was a tiny bit too cool and authentic and millennial to really care about tawdry salesmanship.

Those days are over. BuzzFeed found there are limits to its original business model of sponsored listicles, and sees the big money in sponsored videos. This is nothing new—a year ago, general manager of video Jonathan Perelman, who is no longer with the company, told me he hoped to go after the “very big bucket” of TV ad dollars—but the company is under a lot more pressure to deliver after missing its revenue target last year.

A sign on display at BuzzFeed’s NewFront event. Erin Griffith

Live video is one way BuzzFeed thinks it can attract TV advertisers. CEO Jonah Peretti told the crowd he was especially excited about a live video of an exploding watermelon that BuzzFeed published using Facebook’s FB new live video feature last month. The 50-minute stream of two BuzzFeed employees doing children’s science experiment attracted more 800,000 concurrent viewers, which Peretti said was “exciting because it’s the first time we have a number that’s comparable to TV.” He added: “800,000 is the closest we have come in terms of live viewership and having lots of people watch the same thing at the same time.”

Beyond live, BuzzFeed touted its employees-turned-Internet stars, like the Try Guys, a group of BuzzFeed employees that do comical experimentation (edible lingerie!getting drunk!mud runs!), or Ashly Perez, and Quinta Brunson, both of which write, direct, star in and produce their own scripted videos. The latter two played up their authenticity, explaining that the videos they make reflect their own experiences, something they didn’t see reflected in any other media. (Tuesday morning, BuzzFeed’s video stars attempted to recreate exploding watermelon magic by blowing up a giant balloon. The broadcast lasted an hour and a half and nearly a million viewers tuned in.)

It’s possible none of BuzzFeed’s approaches work for long. Even Tasty, which now boasts 360 million monthly viewers in its nine short months of existence, could fade out as quickly as it took off. “You don’t get to churn these things out forever,” warned Ze Frank, president of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. “You have to change.”

That’s the inherent risk in digital media today. BuzzFeed’s executives were clear in their warnings that even though it may look like the company knows what it is doing—indeed, BuzzFeed is the poster child for digital media innovation—it is in a constant state of figuring things out just like the rest of us.

Driving it all home, the final slide of the event blasted a not-so-subtle message: WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WILL WORK, BUT WE KNOW HOW TO FIND OUT. The subtext? You, dear advertiser, don’t know what will work either, except you don’t know how to find out.

It’s not a bad message—everyone in media is scared of the seismic shifts that seem to be happening all at once. You may as well listen to the team that got 800,000 people to tune in for an exploding watermelon.

Update: This story has been updated to show that BuzzFeed’s Tasty video had 70,000 shares, not 700,000.